The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today that 25 cities and states — including Hawaii — have ordered swine flu vaccine and that the first doses could be administered early next week.
An estimated 6 to 7 million doses of vaccine should be out next week, and they should include both shots and the nasal spray form of the vaccine. But the first 600,000 doses available Tuesday will all be nasal spray, said officials with the CDC.
More than 60 states, large cities and American territories will be placing swine flu vaccine orders, so nearly half have their orders in and more are placing them this week, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who heads the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Besides Hawaii, the states that have placed orders include Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are also on the list.
At a press conference today in Atlanta, Schuchat also said about 300,000 pediatric, liquid doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu have been released from a national medicine stockpile to address a shortage. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius approved the release yesterday.
The CDC doesn't have an exact count of swine flu deaths and hospitalizations, but existing reports suggest the infection has caused more than 600 deaths and more than 9,000 hospitalizations since the virus was first identified in April.
The government keeps more careful count of deaths of pregnant women and children attributed to swine flu. The CDC is aware of 28 deaths of pregnant women and about 50 of children.
Meanwhile, a report from a public health advocacy group today listed Hawaii as one of 15 states that could run out of hospital beds if a third of the population contracts swine flu.
The nonprofit Trust for America's Health estimates the number of people hospitalized could range from a high of 168,000 in California to just under 2,500 in Wyoming.
The report estimates that 6,410 people in Hawaii may need to be hospitalized. This would mean 66 percent of the state's hospital beds could be filled during the height of the outbreak, based on estimates from government flu computer models.
The group used the FluSurge model developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study how quickly hospitals would fill up during a mild pandemic, like the kind the swine flu — or what doctors prefer to call the 2009 H1N1 strain — is shaping up to be.
It based its estimates on the mild 1968 pandemic, suggesting up to 35 percent of the population could fall ill.
Even though only a fraction would be sick enough to be hospitalized, health officials are bracing: When H1N1 first appeared in the spring, more than 44,000 people visited emergency rooms in hard-hit New York City, the report noted. Just sorting out which patients are sick enough to be admitted from the vast majority who need to go home is a big job. And hospital capacity varies widely.
By the outbreak's peak, the new report suggests, Delaware and Connecticut hospitals would fill up soonest. Also on that list, besides Hawaii: Arizona, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The full report is at:
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/h1n1/
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/a...pital+beds+in+swine+flu+outbreak++report+says
An estimated 6 to 7 million doses of vaccine should be out next week, and they should include both shots and the nasal spray form of the vaccine. But the first 600,000 doses available Tuesday will all be nasal spray, said officials with the CDC.
More than 60 states, large cities and American territories will be placing swine flu vaccine orders, so nearly half have their orders in and more are placing them this week, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who heads the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Besides Hawaii, the states that have placed orders include Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are also on the list.
At a press conference today in Atlanta, Schuchat also said about 300,000 pediatric, liquid doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu have been released from a national medicine stockpile to address a shortage. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius approved the release yesterday.
The CDC doesn't have an exact count of swine flu deaths and hospitalizations, but existing reports suggest the infection has caused more than 600 deaths and more than 9,000 hospitalizations since the virus was first identified in April.
The government keeps more careful count of deaths of pregnant women and children attributed to swine flu. The CDC is aware of 28 deaths of pregnant women and about 50 of children.
Meanwhile, a report from a public health advocacy group today listed Hawaii as one of 15 states that could run out of hospital beds if a third of the population contracts swine flu.
The nonprofit Trust for America's Health estimates the number of people hospitalized could range from a high of 168,000 in California to just under 2,500 in Wyoming.
The report estimates that 6,410 people in Hawaii may need to be hospitalized. This would mean 66 percent of the state's hospital beds could be filled during the height of the outbreak, based on estimates from government flu computer models.
The group used the FluSurge model developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study how quickly hospitals would fill up during a mild pandemic, like the kind the swine flu — or what doctors prefer to call the 2009 H1N1 strain — is shaping up to be.
It based its estimates on the mild 1968 pandemic, suggesting up to 35 percent of the population could fall ill.
Even though only a fraction would be sick enough to be hospitalized, health officials are bracing: When H1N1 first appeared in the spring, more than 44,000 people visited emergency rooms in hard-hit New York City, the report noted. Just sorting out which patients are sick enough to be admitted from the vast majority who need to go home is a big job. And hospital capacity varies widely.
By the outbreak's peak, the new report suggests, Delaware and Connecticut hospitals would fill up soonest. Also on that list, besides Hawaii: Arizona, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The full report is at:
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/h1n1/
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/a...pital+beds+in+swine+flu+outbreak++report+says
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